When it comes to gardening, I have the best intentions. But although I receive compliments about our little garden, it primarily happens on its own.

This proved true once again on a recent morning. As I was putting my breakfast dishes in the sink, I noticed that a plant I’d been given was growing.

A couple of weeks before, some friends and I went on a garden tour in the neighborhood. One of the homeowners generously offered us some small plants pulled from her flowerbed. We had admired the delicate blooms and apparently, this plant grows like mad and was coming up all over her yard. The days since had been challenging for me, and I had not had time to replant. So it lived in a plastic bag on my windowsill.

It was no surprise to me that it had taken so long to put the sprout in soil. The revelation was that the plant, the name of which I have completely forgotten, wasn’t just staying alive. It was thriving, growing with absolutely no love.

The meme that popped into my head was “Bloom where you are planted.”  But this little guy hadn’t been planted. So what was the lesson here?

Grow wherever you get tossed?

I think that indeed might be it. There are some days, weeks, months where we can’t get our footing let alone make progress. We get discouraged. We think WHAT IF it never gets better? (Oh, those deadly what ifs.)

Nonetheless, it is possible to grow and even thrive where we get tossed. After all, God knows where we are. I think the key is to do the best we can in the moment. A recent quote I read and wrote down speaks to this:

“The illusion is that our life happens outside the present moment. The truth is – your life has never happened and never will happen outside the here and now. If you want to live up to your potential and thrive in your life – it’s never going to happen in the past or future, it’s always going to happen in the here and now.”

Monk Manual Monday Momentum

The prophet Jeremiah said something similar to the Jewish exiles in Babylon:

“Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” 
Jeremiah 29:4-7

So look around. Notice where your feet are planted and start there. Give thanks for the satisfying cup of coffee you just brewed or that the sun is shining. Inhale the fresh laundry smell as you fold towels. Yay! You got some laundry done!

Celebrate small victories. Maybe you finally sent the email you had put off far too long. Or made that appointment. Maybe you took a walk. Maybe you planted a garden.

You, too, can prosper. And you can do it wherever you get tossed.
So, go. 
Be.